Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s wardrobe malfunction
Super Bowl XXXVIII – which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004 from Houston, Texas on the CBS television network in the United States – was noted for a controversial halftime show in which Janet Jackson's breast, adorned with a nipple shield, was exposed by Justin Timberlake for about half a second, in what was later referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction". The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate, was widely discussed. Along with the rest of the halftime show, it led to an immediate crackdown and widespread debate on perceived indecency in broadcasting. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined CBS a record US$550,000 which was fought in the Supreme Court, but that fine was appealed and ultimately voided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2011 ruling, and a case to reinstate the fine was refused in 2012. What Happened The incident was ridiculed both within the United States and abroad with a number of commentators considering it a planned publicity stunt. Some American commentators in particular viewed it as a sign of decreasing morality in American culture while others considered the incident harmless, arguing that it received an undue amount of attention and backlash. The increased regulation of broadcasting raised concerns regarding censorship and free speech in the United States, and the FCC increased the fine per indecency violation from US$27,500 to US$325,000 shortly after the event. The halftime show that year was produced by MTV and was themed around the network's Choose or Lose campaign due to the event occurring during a presidential election year. Following the wardrobe incident, the National Football League (NFL) announced that MTV, which also produced the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXV, would not be involved in any halftime shows in the future. The MTV Chief Executive stated in an interview with Reuters that Jackson engineered the stunt, while Timberlake was informed of it just moments before he took the stage. The exposure was broadcast to a total audience of 143.6 million viewers. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim claims that this incident was what led to the creation of the video sharing website. The incident also made "Janet Jackson" the most searched term, event, and image in Internet history, as well as the most searched person and term of 2004 and 2005. The incident also broke the record for "most searched event over one day". Jackson was later listed in the 2007 edition of Guinness World Records as "Most Searched in Internet History" and the "Most Searched for News Item". It became the most watched, recorded and replayed television moment in TiVo history and "enticed an estimated 35,000 new TiVo subscribers to sign up". The incident also coined the phrase "wardrobe malfunction", which was later added to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Following the incident, CBS parent company Viacom, and their co-owned subsidiaries MTV and Infinity Broadcasting, enforced a blacklist of Jackson's singles and music videos on many radio formats and music channels worldwide. As of 2018, neither Jackson nor Timberlake are banned from the halftime show. Timberlake later performed at Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018. Category:2004 Category:Awful Moments in Music History Category:2000s Category:Events Category:Controversies Category:Halftime Shows